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On the first day of a trial for a man charged in a toddler's death, witnesses also say he and the boy had a good relationship.

HAMPTON -- Marvin Eugene Barnes told police he never meant to harm his girlfriend's 19-month-old son. He also said he never threw the boy against a bedroom wall two days before Christmas in December 2004, fracturing the boy's skull and sending him into a coma.

Barnes, 34, who is charged with second-degree murder and felony child abuse in Bishop Stewart's death, maintains he just tossed the child onto a cushion on the floor when the boy wouldn't lie down for his nap, and that his head might have hit an ironing board leaning against the wall.

His lawyer contends it was an accident, but medical testimony on the opening day of Barnes' trial Tuesday in Hampton Circuit Court revealed Bishop died from severe brain trauma that included skull fractures on both sides of his head and extensive bleeding throughout his brain.

"Once the injury occurred, Bishop would not have been acting as himself from that moment on," said Michelle Clayton, a forensic pediatrician with the Child Abuse Program at Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk.

A Hampton man sentenced Monday was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and felony child abuse. Byshop Stewart would have celebrated his 23rd birthday by the time his killer is released from prison. On Monday, Hampton Judge William Andrews sentenced Marvin Eugene Barnes to 20 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and felony child abuse of Byshop, his girlfriend's 19-month-old son. It was the same sentence jurors recommended when they found Barnes guilty in April. The toddler was in a coma and on life support for six days as a result of skull fractures on both sides of his head and extensive bleeding in his brain.